Looking back at 2007

What a year it was!


I matured as a tourer this year, When i started out, i always used to wonder why most of the tourers like Ghat roads compared to the easy straight roads! I always felt that ghat roads were Pain in the ass! :P you have to concentrate so much in each turn and it's no fun bending the bike at each turn, watching out for oncoming traffic, taking the curve, lots of calculations going on in head etc. While the Straight roads (especially the NH4 types) with 4 lanes were bliss! full throttle, sit back and watch the world go by in highspeed!
I had to eat my own words, 2007 showed me the bliss of ghat roads and the fun in riding curvy roads, am no longer worried about getting the "chicken strips" on my tyres :P

Another problematic area was Night riding! Dang, that was hard, what fun is it when you have the truckers flashing all their 4 * 100w headlamps at you and you are temporarily blinded! I always used to ensure that i never end up riding in night in any of my rides. But this year, most of my rides ended with night riding! rather unintentionally! But i learnt a thing or two about riding in nights this year, can't say iam comfortable, but if iam forced to, then can manage pretty well. Thanks to the Headlamp upgrade from lousy 35w candlelight to 55/60w tubelight. More is never enough i guess, it's time to upgrade to HID i think :P

Looking back at 2007, i had a pretty good time riding with few very talented riders. I kicked off my first ride of 2007 with Sachin whom i had met in Xbhp's gtg. I had never imagined that i will find my ghat section guru in that gtg! Even though i had spent more than a week in Kerala during my Loong Kerala Ride at the fag end of 2006, i was not comfortable taking on the ghat sections/twisties. Then Sachin and me planned our ride to Waynad in kerala and with in one day, sachin taught me the technique to take on ghat sections and i started getting the hang of it, albiet the ride was cut short and i ventured towards belur and halebeedu, but i had got my first lesson in tackling ghats and i was sure that practice will make me more confident.

Practice session did come in May, during our Ride to mangalore to calicut and to bangalore This time we had more riders, i had the pleasure of riding with excellent riders like karthik ayyar and balaji, the fun we had in this ride was simply too much :P This ride made me laugh so much in those 4 days! all thanks to Santosh, the legendary iron butt pillion of balaji! This was my first ride with a large group where i was just out of the learner phase and thanks to sachin's guidance, again while returning for calicut to waynad, i could take up the learning lessons and i got a hang of taking on twisties.
Balaji and karthik ayyar got added to our permanent list of riders after this ride :P
Also, two large hearted Xbhpians Sujay and Zahin from mangalore became our very good friends, they really saved our ass in mangalore, when we were stranded with out getting a room to stay. Their large heartedness humbled us.

Then came the monsoon season, the dreaded season for me. Am yet to start to get the hang of riding in rains. Soon plans were afoot for a ride in october, We had a new rider this time, it was Professor Nanjundappa Nisarga of Christ college! Must say, this ride was one of the most memorable rides for me! Professor's down to earth attitude coupled with balaji's company made me enjoy the ride. Also, i cannot forget the two xbhpians who joined in for this ride, two guys whom i had never ridden with or known earlier, but they turned out to be the most decent riders i have ever come across! Venu and Chetan were excellent on road and off road too, they mingled very well among the group, Professor was the common bonding element i guess!:P
Also got introduced to balaji's pillion Nandeesh, who was santosh's replacement from earlier ride and he was no less in ticking our funny bones!
Jogfalls was misty, the foggy road through honnavar was unforgettable. The ride through back breaking Honnavar to Gokarna stretch was unforgettable! Gokarna's laid back atmosphere was a treat, also big time treat was booze sessions with fish side dishes and professor for company! I missed out on Yana, it was just too much for me, while balaji, venu and chetan went through the ordeal, on our part, prof, me and manas enjoyed the leisure ride back through scenic haveri route and then the rip fest from chitradurga.
Sachin was sorely missed in this ride, he couldn't make it due to office issues, but later, even he regretted for not joining us. No problem, there's always next time.

Ah, the month of october seemed to be raining rides :P
Just 2 weeks after i returned from Gokarna ride, i was to attend wedding of my close colleague all hopes of going with office people got ditched after all my colleagues pulled out of the proposed cage ride. Now it was back to my trusty zma, i was in two minds whether to do this solo ride or go by bus (Yikes!) Thats when my close friend Girish joined in. Now girish was no stranger to rides with me, after all i started my touring with him as pillion during my first loong ride This time though, i had my cramster saddlebags, so my pillion need not worry about being the cramster :P
Also this was to be Girish's last ride with me as a bachelor, he's getting hitched in April 2008. So, we set off towards shimoga and surprisingly, we covered lot of distance in shorttime including breaks.
The ride was a beauty, My 40K done Zma took the abuse, she managed to go through the punishment of hauling me and fully loaded saddle bags with 80kg pillion pretty well. My colleague's place which is 60kms from sagar was heavenly, we thoroughly enjoyed the stay there, soaking in nature, early morning life in a village etc. Attended the wedding, Came back riding through the night! NH4 at night was so sleepy! Thoroughly enjoyed this ride, after this ride, my respect for my trusty zma went up, Am truly amazed at this bike's capacity to endure punishment! Good going girl :)

The month of november was time for annual meet of Bikenomads
Plans were afoot in community about finalising a place for the annual meet this year, Last year's meet was in Goa
Voting was done and most favoured Hampi and Goa. So it was decided as hampi for this year.
Along with Sachin, i volunteered for managing the logistics. It was one heck a exercise! right from making google sheets of riders with their complete details to the number of rooms to be booked in hotel etc. The ride was memorable and all the excel sheets were worth the pain :P
Met members from mumbai/pune/hyd and it was gala time there. I was for the first time leading the pack of riders from bangalore, i had the pleasure of meeting and riding with few wonderful people like Aditya bhelke, Lovejoshi, Ashishchamoli, Gaurav and many more.

Apart from the above mentioned long rides, i also did few chota rides over weekends. Those were
Ride to bheemeshwari with bull gang of dada jsr, Kam and boodie

Kam's send off ride
Bangy guys rode up to say bye bye to kam bhai, who was shifting to Noida :(

Rangantitu ride
Memorable ride to rangantitu bird santuary, Met and rode with Venkatsir for the first time and had loads of discussions with him regarding biking scene in india.

Ride to Himavad Gopalswamy Betta
With sachin, it was a well deserved ride after a looong time indeed!

Ride to Gaganachukki and K kudi
Ride with old friends santoosh, pradeep and Renu. What a ride! Ride through forest area in K gudi was superb!

So overall, i had a gala time during this year, i hope 2008 too has many rides in store and places to see and ofcourse, lots of people to meet.